It’s almost impossible to strike the perfect balance between playing for the present and the future. After two years of arduous rebuilding from the ground up, the vast majority of teams are forced to reassess their long-term goals. Not every franchise is fortunate enough to land Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook or Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns in consecutive seasons, and the road to contention for those who don’t is marked by multiple crossroads.
The Orlando Magic hit theirs midway through 2014-15 by firing Jacque Vaughn, and chose a direction several months later by plucking the notoriously difficult but undeniably successful Scott Skiles from the ranks of unemployed coaches. After three years of lottery balls yielded an impressive collection of prospects but no surefire means to a highly successful end, the Magic were fed up. They hired Skiles to win right now, development of young players be damned.
DIME POWER RANKINGS
Is that the best route to a title? Probably not. But Orlando needed some legitimate reason for optimism beyond Nikola Vucevic double-doubles and the occasional highlight plays from its electric backcourt, and this new coach would provide it. Two weeks into his first season with the Magic, though, the wins – despite unsustainably poor performance in crunch time – had yet to come.
How did Skiles react? By making the kind of difficult move for which he was hired: replacing the gifted but inconsistent Victor Oladipo in the starting lineup with unspectacular veteran Channing Frye.
That was Nov. 24. One week later, Orlando has won four consecutive games with victories over the New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, and Minnesota Timberwolves to move to 10-8 on the season. Oladipo has averaged 18.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in just 27.0 minutes since being moved to the bench, and the Magic have been as dominant defensively as their natural, burgeoning talent on that end of the floor suggests.
Will Orlando regress offensively? Certainly. Is the sample size big enough to render Oladipo’s obvious comfort leading second units viable? Of course not. And maybe most importantly, have Skiles’ eyes drifted too far from the ultimate horizon? Perhaps. Mario Hezonja’s exit from the rotation, for instance, seems laughably short-sighted, and Aaron Gordon’s minutes have been cut back, too.
But none of that matters for now. The Magic want to win, and this surprising lineup change – one we still don’t think is this team’s best – has propelled them to their longest winning streak in three years. And if it proves effective for the season’s remainder, could be the most significant turning point yet during Orlando’s long trip back to legitimacy.
Week 5 Power Rankings
All games from Nov. 25 through Dec. 1.
1. Golden State Warriors (3-0)
Yes, the Magic had a better record over the past seven days than the defending champions. And yes, Luke Walton’s team narrowly avoided defeat in Salt Lake City on Monday night. Until the Golden State Warriors lose a game, though, the top spot in these rankings is theirs.
A minor ankle injury, by the way, kept Harrison Barnes from the lineup all week. So how did the Warriors respond? By starting the previously invisible Brandon Rush, who erupted for 14 points in a 4-minute span during Golden State’s win over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday.
That doesn’t exactly quell the notion that Draymond Green’s newfound offensive prowess is a product of his team’s system, does it? Plays like these in the Warriors’ win over the Jazz do, though.
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It bears repeating: Green is a top-10 player in the NBA.
2. Orlando Magic (4-0)
3. Utah Jazz (2-1)
Quin Snyder’s squad was a ridiculously clutch Stephen Curry triple away from making the Warriors 18-1. How’d the Jazz do it? With the same blend of dominant defense, pace control, and offensive precision that made them darlings of basketball aficionados throughout the second half of 2014-15.
It’s that last bit that could would make Utah more than a thorn in the side of an established Western Conference power, and it was troublingly inconsistent during the first month of the season. The team’s relatively poor performance on that end, though, is easily explained: struggles of Gordon Hayward.
The Jazz’s top playmaker quietly disappointed for the majority of last month, but rebounded in a big way as it slowly came to a close. Hayward is averaging 23.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.2 assists on elite shooting marks over his last five games, and has fully rediscovered the herky-jerky comfort that makes him such an effective penetrator.
Combined with the sweeping offensive improvements of Derrick Favors and Trey Burke, Hayward reverting back to form for good has Utah primed for league average offense at the very least. Which, as Golden State fully understands, will be all it takes for the Jazz to emerge as a surefire playoff team in the West.
4. Indiana Pacers (2-0)
What else is there to say about Paul George? If not for the singular dominance of Curry, the Pacers’ ever-improving superstar would comfortably lead a crowded MVP field.
When Frank Vogel said in October that he expected George to “have the best season of his career,” we assumed it was coach-speak. The 25-year-old wasn’t exactly thrilled about his planned move to nominal power forward, after all, and needed all the confidence he could get in his first full season since that horrific broken leg.
But time has rendered Vogel’s shining appraisal short of reality. George isn’t just playing better than he ever has, but has become one of the most versatile playmakers in the league – all while maintaining his longstanding lockdown ability on defense.
This tasty lemon-lime shot chart somehow doesn’t do his play justice.
George isn’t just splashing from deep like you-know-who or slithering through the paint for awkward, seemingly impossible finishes. His game is a canny, nuanced one these days, a development that unlocks the merits of small ball better than even Vogel and Larry Bird could have imagined.
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He’s still not LeBron James, probably won’t keep shooting like Curry, and won’t ever be the effortless scorer Kevin Durant is, either. But none of that matters. George, playing like this, is one of the several best players in the world, and has Indiana poised to make major noise come spring.
5. San Antonio Spurs (3-1)
After his team scored 89 points in a three-point loss to the Chicago Bulls at the United Center, Gregg Popovich didn’t exactly heap praise on the Spurs’ revamped offense.
Pop: "We are not good offensively, and may not be until March."
— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) December 1, 2015
San Antonio’s 102.5 offensive rating ranks eighth in the league this season, and the silver and black assist on more made field goals than all but four teams. The Spurs, remember, are still integrating LaMarcus Aldridge and acclimating to Kawhi Leonard growing into a bonafide superstar. A top-10 offense, basically, should be considered something close to cause for celebration.
But expectations in the Alamo City are different than anywhere else, and Popovich is right that San Antonio isn’t humming with the sublime blend of potent passing and perfect floor-spacing that’s become its hallmark over recent seasons. Considering the talent on this roster and the ability of this coaching staff, however, it seems only a matter of time until the Spurs become a souped-up version of the team the basketball world has come to know.
Needless to say, we can’t wait for March.
6. Boston Celtics (3-1)
We’ve no idea what to make of the Celtics. Their last six games of the month are one of the greatest examples of parity the league has seen this decade.
Boston lost to the Brooklyn Nets by 10, and was routed by the Atlanta Hawks two days later. The green and gold narrowly escaped the winless Philadelphia 76ers on the second leg of a back-to-back, then absolutely drubbed the Washington Wizards in the nation’s capital. Those wildly disparate outcomes weren’t enough for Brad Stevens’ club, though: It split a trip to Florida with 19-point loss to the Orlando Magic followed by a 10-point victory over the Miami Heat.
Go figure.
7. Los Angeles Clippers (3-1)
Three straight home wins over the New Orleans Pelicans, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Portland Trail Blazers aren’t exactly something for a contender to pump its chest about. Before its mid-November struggles, anything less than those victories would have been considered a disappointment for Doc Rivers’ team.
The Clippers, though, aren’t quite the team anyone thought they were coming into this season. The offense hasn’t quite run as smoothly; the defense hasn’t improved; and the summer acquisitions have been more of a headache than a cure for the team’s highly-documented depth woes.
After Los Angeles lost 102-91 to the Jazz at Staples Center on Wednesday, Chris Paul told the Orange County Register’s Dan Woike, “we have never been like this.” Fair. Just imagine, then, how the Clippers would have felt if they hadn’t beaten a three-team triumvirate with nothing better than long-shot playoff hopes.
Winning cures all ills, but that’s not the case for Los Angeles at the moment. What ails the Clippers is something bigger, and won’t be remedied until they post a series of victories they’d have been proud of before the season began.
8. Memphis Grizzlies (3-1)
Lost in Mario Chalmers mania were the continued labors of Marc Gasol. A season after showing the offensive aggression so many longed for him to develop, the reigning All-NBA First Team honoree seemed less than engaged in the early going of 2015-16.
Gasol came into Tuesday night’s action averaging 14.9 points per game and shooting 45.2 percent from the field, numbers that represent a major departure from his MVP-type form of a season ago. Was age catching up to Big Spain? Might he simply be regressing to career norms?
It’s too early to render those concerns altogether moot, but Gasol’s 38-point, 13-rebound, six-assist, four-block night against the New Orleans Pelicans is certainly reason for optimism.
The reasoning behind his breakout performance definitely does, too. “I imposed a little bit of my will,” Gasol told the Associated Press. “Instead of trying to get somebody else going or trying to read and see what was in front of me, I just went ahead and tried to be a little more aggressive.”
Here’s hoping that mentality is one he’s able to harness going forward.
9. Charlotte Hornets (2-1)
Mere hours after the Hornets announced Jeremy Lamb’s three-year, $21 million contract extension, we expressed confusion about the team’s willingness to commit to a player who hadn’t shown he belonged in the NBA on anything more than a fleeting occasion. But guess what? Charlotte, apparently, knew just a bit more about their sleepy-eyed shooting guard than we did.
Lamb has been a revelation over the season’s first five weeks, establishing himself as a hopeful candidate for Sixth Man of the Year just months removed from riding the pine for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He’s absolutely feasting at the rim and from mid-range, capitalizing on his mouth-watering combination of length, skill, and fluidity with the type of finishing and shot-making prowess we thought would never come.
And frankly, our skepticism wasn’t only due to Lamb’s dispiriting first three seasons in the league, either. How many perimeter players in basketball do you expect to shoot 62.2 percent on 2-pointers?
The Hornets are fifth in offensive rating and sixth in 3-point rate, wildly surprising rankings that speak to their completely revamped offensive identity. Related: Al Jefferson will be sidelined for at least the next two weeks. Let’s see if Lamb and company can keep up the pace without Big Al drawing attention on the block. Given the last month, however, there’s no reason to expect they can’t.
10. Los Angeles Lakers (0-3)
The Lakers don’t deserve this space, and neither does Kobe Bryant. The five-time champion was arguably a bigger on-court detriment to his team’s chances this week than at any other point of his harrowing 2015-16 season.
But we don’t care.
Bryant is a legend. And these horrific and utterly damning struggles not withstanding, we’ll remember him that way forever.
